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Feels like another move by the (relatively) new management to increase subscriptions and appeal. NPR this morning was reporting that top three streaming services globally are Netflix, Amazon, and Disney (crazy how quickly the latter rose to the top echelon!), so HBO is already a bit more niche than the other options. I wish they would accept that and focus on producing super high quality shows for a smaller target audience that is willing to pay a premium. Not every service needs to appeal to everyone, no?
 
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I don't know why 4K is such a big deal to so many folks. This stuff comes so compressed that it doesn't look anything like a 4K blu-ray and is barely distinguishable from 1080p for most content. FWIW - I have an 85-inch Sony HDR set, so that might be why I'm so unimpressed by streaming 4K content.
Some variables here but to me it sounds like there's something wrong on your end. 4k for me looks fantastic. And yes very close to a disc, especially ATV+ content. I have to look real hard to notice any signs of compression from streaming.
And I run a server with thousands of movies, hundreds of uncompressed UHD rips.
It can obviously vary by internet speed(I have low latency gigabit, using wired ethernet throughout the house), the device you're streaming with, display settings, etc. but it looks damn good to me.
Viewing on my 65" LG OLED B6 and my new 77" Sony a80j. Streaming with 2 generations of ATV 4k as well as a 2019 shield pro. And sometimes my oppo 203.
 
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Some variables here but to me it sounds like there's something wrong on your end. 4k for me looks fantastic. And yes very close to a disc, especially ATV+ content. I have to look real hard to notice any signs of compression from streaming.
And I run a server with thousands of movies, hundreds of UHD rips.
It can obviously vary by internet speed, the device you're streaming with, display settings, etc. but it looks damn good to me.
Viewing on my 65" LG OLED B6 and my new 77" Sony a80j. Streaming with 2 generations of ATV 4k as well as a 2019 shield pro. And sometimes my oppo 203.

No my setup is good and perhaps I was just being dramatic. There is a difference, but it's not that big a deal to me - I have to go pixel peeping to notice. The compression artifacts are there if you know what to look for even with a high bandwidth wired ethernet setup.

Point is - There is a difference, but it's not that big a deal to me - I have to go pixel peeping to notice.
 
Paying to watch ads seems so weird to me now that I have ditched cable and only watch OTA tv. If I am going to pay, I am doing it to avoid ads.

Well, to be fair, you were paying a lot more to watch a crazy ton of ads before you ditched cable. Now you can pay a smaller amount and watch the same three ads over, and over, and over, and over again with every commercial break, without a TiVo 30-second skip button.

As for HBO's deal, I'll just continue using my Dad's login.
 
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$5 discount for ads? I pay twice that to get rid of ads on YouTube.
No thanks, HBO, not good enough.
 
I subscribe to a streaming service that's nothing but ads. No original content. Just ads. 24 hours a day. Ads, ads, ads. They pay me $10 a month!

Ok, none of that is true.
 
They should be paying me for watching ads
And I’m not talking about $5 less than ad free. My time is worth much more than $5 and I’m sure most people’s time is also
 
I mean, their $15/mo offering has ads (previews for HBOMax shows).
That's only true technically and isn't really the same by any stretch of the imagination. It's skippable and appears only briefly at the beginning of an episode. That's far from being hawked burgers and cars every 10 minutes during a show for minutes at a time. The "ads" you're referring to are more akin to previews during movies, showing viewers what else is available to watch or is coming soon. While they're technically ads, most people probably enjoy previews and may discover something new to watch.

In any case, my time is worth far more than a measly $5/month. I'll take the ad-free tier.
 
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$149.99 / 12 = $12.49916 or $12.50

$13 X 12 = $156

Nice math there MacRumors.

They didn't mention there is a prepay discount ...

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I still think HBO Max has some of the best programming. Mare of Easttown is easily the best series of the past few years. I hope they can be convinced to do another season.
 
I refuse to pay for ads. I hate ads so much I don't even use the free service that has ads.

I might pay for the yearly ad free version and save some money and actually won't have to worry for any price increases for a year.
 
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pay+receive ads? eeek! Reminded me of magazines that you pay like $10 for and like 30% of it was ad pages.
 
Just a heads up, the new HBO website overhaul is absolute trash. Like unusable for anything other than pressing play. Wanna scrub? Forget about it. It’s laggy af. Freezes, tab crashes, etc. It also uses a ton of system resources.

This is the ATT MO. Milk archaic architecture. I was gonna switch to ATT fiber but found out it still runs on their 20 year old 2WIRE infrastructure and requires their crap OTT modem. Lol no thanks.
 
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Ads? No thanks, hard pass.

Just like all the streaming services I wait until there is a critical mass of things I want to watch, sign up for a month or two and binge watch everything, cancel, move on the the next service, rinse and repeat. No need for an ad supported cheaper tier when you selectively subscribe.
That's what I do. I usually have HBO Max for one month per year. HBO Max has little new content of interest for me so watching some old favourites like Babylon 5, Nightmare On Elm Street and Blade trilogy. I may revisit Chernobyl for a third time. I have always considered HBO's content / pricing ratio to be the most disproportionate among all the streaming services. I considered only Game Of Thrones as worthy of signing up - mostly utilising free monthly subscription with them and HBO Nordic. I despise advertising! I pay for media services to remove advertising and supply quality content that is unavailable for free.
 
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Ads? No thanks, hard pass.

Just like all the streaming services I wait until there is a critical mass of things I want to watch, sign up for a month or two and binge watch everything, cancel, move on the the next service, rinse and repeat. No need for an ad supported cheaper tier when you selectively subscribe.

This is the way.
 
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